The hurricane put Houstonians in positions they never imagined they’d be in, making lifestyle choices they never thought they’d have to make.

In February, Sam Scott said goodbye to the Memorial Bend home he and his wife raised three children in and painstakingly renovated over two decades.

After Harvey flooded his neighborhood and a nearby wastewater treatment plant overflowed, filthy sludge sat in the house for days. The Scotts felt they had no choice but to tear it down.

They put their nearly 10,000-square-foot property up for sale for $550,000, a discount from what lots were selling for pre-Harvey. After dropping the price by $25,000, they accepted a builder’s offer for $500,000.

“Teardowns were selling for $600,000 back during the boom in early 2014,” Scott said.

Houston’s housing prices have generally held up in neighborhoods that avoided the worst of Harvey’s wrath.

Average price change: 2012-2016

Still, a major source of the activity since Harvey has been investors buying flooded homes to fix and flip or turn into rentals.

Housing consultant Scott Davis, who has been studying the market effects from Harvey and previous storms, said home values typically take two to three years to recover.

His own house in Braes Heights flooded during Harvey. He’s had it on the market for several months.

There was a wave of sales immediately after the storm, Davis said, and owners who sold right away got a higher price than those who sold in the ensuing months. Prices have since recovered some.

“They’re still off significantly over what they were before the storm, but if you were to take what you got with insurance, plus what you could sell your house for today, you’re pretty close to par from before the storm,” he said of his neighborhood.

Areas that saw widespread flooding remain in transition.

Bernie Otten was able to return to his flooded home in The Woodlands in less than four months, but some of his neighbors still aren’t back.

About 100 homes in Otten’s Timarron Lakes neighborhood flooded during Harvey. Some owners sold right away to investors, for a fraction of their homes’ pre-storm value.

“I think there will be more people moving and more people who lease their houses,” Otten said. “The market’s going to be soft.”

In Meyerland, one of the neighborhoods hit by flooding three years in a row, 163 homes are for sale or rent, more than 7 percent of the properties there.

But still-unoccupied homes make up what’s being called a “shadow inventory.” These properties are not being actively marketed, but their owners would sell for the right price.

Janice Rubin is still on the fence about her house in Meyerland, a neighborhood she’s grown to love and can’t imagine leaving.

None of her options seem ideal. Pay to elevate; take out a new mortgage, build new and pay higher property taxes; or repair the house and risk future flooding.

“That’s the incentive FEMA gives you,” Rubin said. “Fix the house the way it was and set yourself up for flooding again.”

The couple, who’s been renting in Westbury, could also sell their lot and buy in a neighborhood that didn’t flood. But there aren’t a lot of options there either.

Jennifer Placencia and her husband Frank Placencia decided to tear down their previous home and build a new home after the Memorial Day flood. The new home's living space will be 10 feet above ground as a way to make sure it won't flood next time. Wednesday, April 25, 2018, in Houston. ( Marie D. De Jesus / Houston Chronicle ) less

Jennifer Placencia and her husband Frank Placencia decided to tear down their previous home and build a new home after the Memorial Day flood. The new home's living space will be 10 feet above ground as a way ... more

Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle

Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle

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Jennifer Placencia and her husband Frank Placencia decided to tear down their previous home and build a new home after the Memorial Day flood. The new home's living space will be 10 feet above ground as a way to make sure it won't flood next time. Wednesday, April 25, 2018, in Houston. ( Marie D. De Jesus / Houston Chronicle ) less

Jennifer Placencia and her husband Frank Placencia decided to tear down their previous home and build a new home after the Memorial Day flood. The new home's living space will be 10 feet above ground as a way ... more

“With the number of houses that flooded and people out of their homes, there’s not much available, and what is available is way overpriced,” Rubin said. “Houses in Westbury went up $100,000 in the six months after the flood.”

Scott Singleton’s Braes Heights home flooded on Tax Day 2016 and then again in Harvey.

He and his wife didn’t want to leave the neighborhood where they had raised their kids and made lifelong friends, so they’re spending tens of thousands of their own money to elevate.

“We’re going to make sure we’re not going to flood anymore,” Singleton said on a recent Friday afternoon from his front yard, an exposed cinder block wall raising the house behind him by some five feet.

In large part, homes are being elevated in upscale communities where residents have the means to protect themselves from future floods by lifting their homes.

Not everyone can afford that level of protection.

Davis, a senior vice president for Meyers Research, a company that serves the homebuilding industry, questions the logic of the city’s new building regulations that require new construction in flood plains to be elevated two feet above the 500-year flood plain, while many existing homes will remain at the level they were before the storm.

“I’m not saying we need to undo the regulation that was just done, but as I look at the juxtaposition of these two houses next to each other I can’t help but feel as if we’ve missed something regarding flood protection,” said Davis on a recent tour of elevated houses near Brays Bayou.

He said he would like to see the city to take a more holistic approach to flood prevention.

“What happens to those neighborhoods where they tear the houses down but can’t afford to build them, or the market won’t support building them, to a new standard?” he said.

“Nobody wants to build houses that flood, but at the same time the way that we’ve approached this thus far is that we are providing protection for people who can afford it. And without addressing some of those regional detention and conveyance issues, we’re not going to be able to bring the same kind of protection to neighborhoods where people don’t have the resources to absorb an extra hundred thousand dollars in foundation costs.”

So far, concerns the hurricane would leave a lasting stain on Houston’s reputation and keep people from coming here and buying houses haven’t played out in any obvious way.

“I think people will still want to move here because we do provide housing more affordably than nearly any other major metro in the United States,” Davis said. “But that’s part of what’s in jeopardy with some of the directions we’re going with the regulations and the way that we’re responding to the storm.”

Houston was already seen as less affordable after price runups during the oil boom.

Builders also face higher costs from an ongoing labor shortage and rising prices for materials, increases that will be passed on to homebuyers.

“If we haven’t taken steps proactively to defend the city from the type of natural disaster we have, which is flooding, than that will play a major role of people deciding to relocate here,” Davis said.

As the city’s overall economy regains its footing, the housing market will strengthen.

Before Harvey, Houston had begun to climb out of an extended energy rut after years of job losses and corporate cutbacks.

Oil prices have risen this year, but the energy industry remains fragile.

Other uncertainties for the housing market include rising mortgage rates and potential foreclosures among homeowners who did not have flood insurance.

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